“Can they unravel the mystery before they’re led like lambs to the slaughter?”
- Book: Murder At Abbeymead Farm (Flora Steele #6)
- Location: Brighton, London, Sussex Downs
- Author: Merryn Allingham
Whilst not all ‘cozy’ mysteries I come across are going to shout ‘read me’, this series is definitely one of my favourites and is one of the few I have striven hard to keep up to date with, as it just keeps getting better and better. The storylines are believable, the characters easy to engage with, and all in keeping with the time period in which they are set, which is the 1950s.
Although each episode is a self-contained storyline, with backstory details being added in sufficient detail to satisfy any newcomers to the series, but not so overwhelming as to be too repetitious for any dedicated Flora Steele followers, I’m sure that once you have read one book, you will be as hooked as I am!
So, without further ado, welcome to the fictional village of Abbeymead in rural Sussex, 1957…
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Bookshop owner Flora Steele, is lucky enough to have many loyal, regular customers, who keep her business ticking over very nicely thank you! Relative newcomer to the village, and someone with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, Percy Milburn, is one such person. Still perceived and treated very much as a stranger by the staunch locals, Percy is a widower from Yorkshire, whose son was killed in the war and who has set his heart on buying the vacant Birds Acre farm, which he wants to turn into a hostel, providing low cost holiday accommodation for visitors wishing to explore the beauty of the Sussex Downs. Not everyone in the village is happy about Percy’s plans for the farm and land though, as ‘dyed-in-the-wool’ locals are quite happy to accept the likes of Sir Frederick Neville with his inherited wealth and title, but are not quite so willing to accommodate Percy’s style of hard-earned cash and status. Plus, many of the established locals also believe that the village is only for long-term residents and visitors of a certain status and there is already a more luxurious hotel which caters for them. Retired schoolmistress Winifred Ticehurst is leading the charge against Percy, thus splitting opinion in the community right down the middle.
The farm and its land, is owned by one Sir Frederick Neville, who despite managing several tracts of land and properties in the area, seems surprisingly, very short of cash and is eager to sell to the highest bidder, so long as the price is right. A meeting is arranged between the two gentlemen to finalise details of the sale, however Percy is conspicuous by his absence and it isn’t until his concerned housekeeper visits Flora, that she and her fellow amateur sleuth, author Jack Carrington, decide to investigate. Unfortunately for Flora, when Jack persuades her that they should check out Birds Acre as their obvious place to begin the search for Percy, they discover much more than they bargained for and the site becomes the scene of a gruesome murder enquiry.
On this occasion, unlike so many previous times, their presence is actually appreciated and encouraged by Inspector Alan Ridley, Jack’s contact in the Brighton police force and regular advisor to him about police protocol for the murder stories he writes. The Inspector is continually under-staffed and over-worked, so is happy for our amateur sleuthing duo to make enquiries on his behalf, knowing that he can trust them to be pragmatic and discreet in their investigations. On this occasion however, Jack is unusually reticent about getting too involved with his friend’s investigation, because for one thing, the suspect list is long and not very salubrious, and on top of that, he is under increasing pressure from his agent and publisher to make good inroads into his next murder mystery novel. When it seems that anyone involved in the sale of Birds Acre, from the solicitor and agent, to a consortium of various gangland thugs trying to evade the long arm of the law and even Sir Neville himself, become both potential targets for murder, and also suspects in the demise of poor Percy, Jack and Flora realise that they are fast becoming embroiled in a situation which is spiralling out of control and which they are powerless to stop, which has never happened to them before. When the body count begins to rise, the suspect list is narrowed down by default and it becomes obvious that the perpetrator is getting evermore desperate, which leaves Flora and Jack facing potentially dangerous outcomes and situations which they may be unable to extricate themselves from.
Alongside this convoluted and difficult case to unravel, a series of very worrying events and ‘accidents’ have befallen Flora herself and it soon becomes obvious that she is the target of a personal vendetta of harassment, designed to scare her, but to what end? Is this connected to the case, or are there others whom Flora has unwittingly upset who are now out for revenge? As if this all isn’t worrying enough for Flora, her personal relationship with Jack is also on a downwards trajectory, which she knows is of her own making, but about which she is not yet ready to make compromises or promises she cannot keep.
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I know I say this every time, but this case has to be the most complicated and potentially deadly, that author Merryn Allingham has had Flora and Jack face yet. With her usual attention to detail, this very multi-layered and immersive storyline, unfolds its many secrets slowly, almost reluctantly, making me wait until almost the final page before the many strands of the plot are dovetailed together and the tension in the air is almost at breaking point, before the net closes on the perpetrator(s) of the crime(s). Merryn always ensures that her readers compile suspect lists which are always quite substantial and generally include any newcomers to the village, a status which automatically places them under suspicion, although not always justifiably so. In fact, this is the first time that I heard both Jack and Flora admit to being stumped by a case and not really certain which direction to take in their investigation. It really is refreshing to know that the characters in a story are only human, filled with doubts about their ability to bring a criminal to justice when there are so many peaks and troughs in a case.
Each new book is like catching up with old friends and it is always good to see how everyone is getting along. The core cast of characters are all wonderfully authentic and multi-faceted, well developed, easy to invest in and quite able to tell their own story. In fact they are more than willing to tell their story to anyone who will listen, so probably best not to let slip to any one of them anything in confidence, which you don’t want spreading far and wide, although Flora and Jack often find the ‘jungle drums’ a great source of information when they are working on a case. There is a real sense of community growing around Jack and Flora, now that they have finally been accepted into the fold and knowing that someone will always have your back in times of crisis is invaluable to them, although they do need to beware those residents who would set themselves above everyone else, unfortunately every community has them! I did wonder if there might have been a few too many ‘extra’ characters introduced this time around, who all stood out rather like a sore thumb. It was just a case of working out which of them were the rotten apples in the barrel, not easy as it turned out, especially when someone closer to home might have been using them as a decoy for their own nefarious ends.
Jack and Flora may now consider themselves part of village life, however, they have to be careful that they don’t overstep the markers of propriety in their personal living arrangements. Having both had previous partners who hurt them badly, they are probably a little too liberal and ahead of their time for such an insular community. So, sooner rather than later, I feel certain they are going to have to make a decision about their relationship going forwards, as Flora’s rather forthright approach when dealing with very thinly veiled questions from folk, is not going to sit well for too much longer and may end up by damaging relationships and even her business status, if she and Jack can’t find a way forward, although I believe that Jack has already made his mind up and is trying to give Flora the time and space she needs to decide.
Albeit that there is a mix of real and fictional places in the storyline, for any ‘armchair travellers’ like myself, the author uses her palette of words wonderfully, to paint enough descriptive detail to set the backdrop of a scene more than adequately, which, when taken together with the vivid narrative details of everyday village life in the late 1950s, including many authentic cameos of some of the stalwart villagers themselves, offers a realistic sense of time and place which is most satisfying. In this episode, Flora and Jack, both together and independently, also spend short periods of time outside of Abbeymead, so Brighton, Worthing and London, also get a noteworthy mention.
Such is Merryn’s fluent style of writing and the way she keeps moving a case forwards, almost imperceptibly at times, she always makes me feel as though I have just finished reading another new murder/mystery by the great Agatha Christie. In fact, Merryn does add a few lovely little touches, such as the referencing of Flora stocking newly published books, including one ‘Spider’s Web’ by said Agatha Christie and the latest Ian Fleming novel in his James Bond series. That very slightly tongue-in-cheek narrative and dialogue, always engaging, but never laced with misplaced humour or with an unrealistic feel to it, is what keeps me coming back for more!
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